Search - u_times

 
 
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2010

Mori helicopter service may add eight-seater to fleet

Mori Building City Air Services Co., which runs a helicopter service between downtown Tokyo and Narita airport, may add a third chopper now that tieups with airlines have boosted traffic.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 22, 2010

Pharmacist Masaaki Goto

Masaaki Goto, 83, runs a tiny pharmacy in Tokyo. Japan has the highest number of prescriptions per capita in the world and, after the United States, it is the world's second largest pharmaceutical market. There are about 50,000 community pharmacies in the country, and large drug stores and convenience...
JAPAN / GROWING OLD ALONE
Jul 21, 2010

Cleanup after unnoticed death now a growing industry

Yoshinori Ishimi could hear a high-pitched whine coming from the apartment in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, he was about to enter. When he went inside, he saw black "mini-twister" clouds of flies.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jul 21, 2010

Ustream goes mainstream

From high atop the summit of Mount Fuji last summer, despite miserable weather and poor visibility, 32-year-old tech enthusiast Joseph Tame sent video coverage of a spectacular solar eclipse live to the Internet from an impromptu mobile-broadcasting studio. With little more than a laptop and a Web connection,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 18, 2010

Bikes starlet of Bangkok rides high

"Instead of staying home, I like to meet many people — I like my freedom," says Chiemi Svensson. It's a feeling this 57-year-old Japanese resident of Bangkok surely has in common with most of her Harley customers.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jul 18, 2010

Pirates off Haneda, the advent of Japanese autos, striking miners' dispute, first American pro go player

100 YEARS AGO
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 17, 2010

Lions' injury crisis allows cubs to bare teeth

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. — Injuries are an inevitable factor in baseball. It's no different for the Saitama Seibu Lions, who lost some key players last month.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2010

Rakuten's all-English edict a bold move, but risky too

Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. surprised the public by announcing early this year it will make English its official language by 2012.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2010

Panel votes to reopen Ozawa case

Former Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa should be indicted over his alleged involvement in falsifying a 2007 report compiled by his political fund management body, an independent judicial panel concluded Thursday in yet another blow to the ruling DPJ.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2010

FIFA vs. the Cheating Heart

BARCELONA, Spain — The World Cup proved a triumph for the predictions of Paul the Octopus, which accurately forecast the rise and fall of Germany and the ultimate victory of Spain, after football pundits and the quants with their battery of supercomputers had tipped Brazil, Argentina, Germany or even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2010

Sexual empowerment with a large dose of Grey matter

Sasha Grey is not the sort of movie star you normally see discussed in these pages. With a resume that includes "Oral Supremacy" and "Sex Toy Teens," Grey has risen to become one of the top porn stars in the United States, appearing in more than 180 films in a three-year period starting when she was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2010

'Kari-Gurashi no Arrietty (The Borrowers)'

Studio Ghibli is often assumed to be the animation house that Hayao Miyazaki built, but Miyazaki has directed only nine of its 17 features to date. Four were made by studio cofounder Isao Takahata and four by four different directors. These latter four, however, are all immediately identifiable as Studio...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 16, 2010

Looking back at the Renaissance

To the receptive, an old painting can sometimes seem like a time machine, giving a vivid sense of the hand and mind that created it, as well as the social milieu and atmosphere behind it. But this time- traveling analogy doesn't just extend to the viewing of venerable art. Even the creation of new paintings...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 16, 2010

The talented women of Kyoto

"Women Artists of Kyoto: Bearing Burdens / Burdens Born" is ostensibly about the classification of female artists since the late 19th century. The term "keishu-gaka" refers to accomplished women artists, "joryu-gaka" to post-World War II artists who created trends among male colleagues and "josei-gaka"...
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2010

Hong Kong pitches school opportunities

Hong Kong's secretary for education, Michael Suen, is looking for Japanese students to study in the city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 14, 2010

Wish upon a lucky star: ema cartoon craze

Ema (shrine prayer plaques) are getting a new twist as fans use them for paying homage to their favorite anime and J-pop idols.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2010

Ex-immigration boss: detentions too long

Illegal residents should not be held in detention for more than one year because any longer causes too much stress, a former chief of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau said, noting extended incarceration led to two hunger strikes at detention centers this year, one of which followed suicides.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2010

A failure to deliver

The new parcel delivery service launched by Japan Post Service Co. of the Japan Post group suffered a setback in its first week of operation. The delivery of more than 340,000 parcels was delayed during the period from July 1, the first day of the new service, to July 7. The company must learn from the...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 14, 2010

World Cup rekindles lost pride in being Japanese

Soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata, a former member of Japan's national team, told the media in the weeks leading up to the World Cup: "Wārudo Kappu no koto wo kangaeru to Nihonjin de aru koto wo saininshi ki suru (ワールド・カップのことを考えると日本人であることを再認識する,...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 13, 2010

A light of hope for abused children: readers' responses

Following are some responses to "A light of hope for abused children" (Zeit Gist, June 15) by Richard Smart.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 12, 2010

Healthy Tamura makes steady start for Hawks

The story of Hitoshi Tamura's career thus far has been a tale littered with injuries and bad luck.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan